Underwhelming Black Friday traffic disappointed shop owners at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, especially at smaller businesses that are coming to terms with financial losses and increased theft in the mall
“It was very slow, no traffic. Every year it’s going down and down,” said Samir Kher, the manager of Glamor’ Us, a shoe store on the bottom floor of the mall.
Glamor’ Us had a variety of Black Friday sales and 30% off signs still hang on the shelves. Despite the discounts, Khan said that the store did 60% less in sales than last year.
“A lot of businesses are closing because of the losses,” Khan said.
Khan, who has owned the location for almost 13 years, said that Black Friday was always crowded in the mall between 2012 and 2019 but has had decreased traffic each year since 2020. He speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict in the Middle East and the current economic climate led to the lack of people.
Nicolas Casillas, the manager of Game Force, a video game store on the mall’s first floor also noticed a “lack of traffic” on Black Friday. Casillas said that the Plaza “looked like today” as he pointed to the empty concourse on Monday afternoon.
Like Glamor’ Us, Game Force also saw a drastic dip in sales, with Casillas saying he did around 50% less Black Friday sales compared to last year. Casillas remembers that even five years ago, the mall was “more lively with more traffic” on Black Friday.
Cindy Ibarra has been the manager of the Foot Locker at the mall for about a month after previously working at the Culver City location, which she said routinely is hectic on Black Friday. While smaller businesses struggled, her store had a better day than she expected.
“This mall is very dead, but we were actually busy during Black Friday and we definitely saw a lot more traffic compared to last year,” said Ibarra, who noticed people lined up outside the mall at 8 a.m., two hours before its opening.
When asked about Cyber Monday, Ibarra said she expected sales to continue to be high. Her store saw an increase of about 30% in online orders over the weekend.
Some businesses rely entirely on in-person sales, and can’t reap the benefits of Cyber Monday and an increased interest in online shopping. Glamor’ Us does not have an online shop and hopes that sales leading up to Christmas will make up for the disappointing day on Friday.
It isn’t just a lack of people that is affecting his business; according to Kher, theft is an issue that is driving other shop owners away from the mall.
“Almost every other day people are stealing here,” Khan said.
But Casillas sees it a bit differently.
“You gotta have people in the mall to steal,” he said.
He said that the glass cases protecting gaming gear and merchandise behind the cash register make his store theft-proof.
During this year’s Black Friday holiday, shoppers in the U.S. spent about 9.8 billion, a 7.5% increase from last year in online sales, according to Adobe Analytics. Adobe predicts that online sales for this Cyber Monday will reach about $221.8 billion, about a 5% increase year-over-year. In-person shopping is also seeming to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic, with Coresight Research reporting how top-tier mall traffic experienced a 12% increase while non-top-tier mall traffic was up 10% in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Kher also cited weather trends as a reason the mall is seeing less sales. He said that rain and cold weather often drive people into the mall to shop, so the shorter rainy season has been hurting sales in recent years. But rain is not always seen as a positive.
Cary Colbert, a mom of two, brought her kids to the mall to play at the indoor playground located next to Game Force. Colbert only goes to the mall for the playground and the TJ Maxx, but said that the chain stores are the ones that normally draw people in. She complained that the mall was “contaminated,” explaining how when it rains, buckets must be placed under leaks and ceilings smell of mold.
Some Americans are turning away from in-person shopping at malls. According to the State Press, only around 700 malls still stand in the country after the total stood at over one thousand in 2020. These numbers are heavily down from 2,500 malls nationwide in the 1980s.
“The mall is always empty,” Colbert said, “The day TJ Maxx is gone, the mall is gone.”